I got back on Sunday afternoon from a seminar in Saint Pierre, which is a French island just off the coast of Newfoundland. I'm from Gander, NL, and I train with Sosei Judo. Other clubs in attendance were Goose Bay Judo Club and MUN Judo, 44 Judo players from Newfoundland and Labrador in all. It was an absolutely fantastic seminar and I'm looking forward to being in Saint Pierre again.
Friday: Long drive from Gander to Fortune to catch the ferry. Uneventful and I'll spare you. The boat ride was fairly smooth and took 45-ish minutes. Once we got there, dropped our stuff off, and got into our Gi's, we had a fantastic seminar. Did a lot of motion drills, combination drills, and a bit of tachi-waza randori. After the seminar, we went to the Hotel Robert for a meal with almost all 44 of us. Did some socializing, met some fantastic people, and finally returned to the dojo where we slept on the tatami. Which sucks, by the way, I don't recommend it, but we couldn't get hotel rooms.
Saturday morning: We drilled again, this time some Ne-Waza techniques. Mostly turnovers and one guard pass. I really liked these and I've been working them since, they used a technique like ude-garami to keep the Gi tight and controlled and when my partner nailed it while I was Uke, the gi was tight right across my chest and the ude-garami was in deep.
Saturday afternoon: Shiai! My first ever tournament. I had no competition at my weight class (weighed in at 170lbs) so I competed at U15. I won my first match with 2 Wozari, despite getting a penalty for attempting Hadaka-Jime. (I honestly had no idea it was illegal. Live and learn.) I won 2 more after that and lost one to an excellent green belt from MUN Judo. Took bronze. I made mistakes I'm unhappy with but I'm ok with it overall for my first competition
Saturday night: Had a bit of a party at the dojo, chatted with some of my fellow Judo players, made some friends I won't soon forget and one is attending my TKD class in August. After that, we went out for a while and played some pool.
Sunday morning: Some more Ne-Waza techniques, a few Kuzushi techniques and a little bit of Ne-Waza randori. Finally, we said our goodbyes and headed for the boat, proud of ourselves as a club and as Judo players.
We spent the weekend sleeping on mats, like I said earlier, which kind of sucked, but we couldn't get hotel rooms. Butokuden has a sub floor and 2 inch mats, but you wouldn't believe how hard they can feel when you try to sleep on them.
Also, a little about me. I'm from Newfoundland, speak a little French, been doing Judo since September and I'm an 18 year old yellow belt.
Don't know if anyone else was there, but it was excellent and I made some great friends and learned a lot about Judo. Also, if there's anyone at all from Saint Pierre on here, thank you for having us and hopefully we will be back soon.
Friday: Long drive from Gander to Fortune to catch the ferry. Uneventful and I'll spare you. The boat ride was fairly smooth and took 45-ish minutes. Once we got there, dropped our stuff off, and got into our Gi's, we had a fantastic seminar. Did a lot of motion drills, combination drills, and a bit of tachi-waza randori. After the seminar, we went to the Hotel Robert for a meal with almost all 44 of us. Did some socializing, met some fantastic people, and finally returned to the dojo where we slept on the tatami. Which sucks, by the way, I don't recommend it, but we couldn't get hotel rooms.
Saturday morning: We drilled again, this time some Ne-Waza techniques. Mostly turnovers and one guard pass. I really liked these and I've been working them since, they used a technique like ude-garami to keep the Gi tight and controlled and when my partner nailed it while I was Uke, the gi was tight right across my chest and the ude-garami was in deep.
Saturday afternoon: Shiai! My first ever tournament. I had no competition at my weight class (weighed in at 170lbs) so I competed at U15. I won my first match with 2 Wozari, despite getting a penalty for attempting Hadaka-Jime. (I honestly had no idea it was illegal. Live and learn.) I won 2 more after that and lost one to an excellent green belt from MUN Judo. Took bronze. I made mistakes I'm unhappy with but I'm ok with it overall for my first competition
Saturday night: Had a bit of a party at the dojo, chatted with some of my fellow Judo players, made some friends I won't soon forget and one is attending my TKD class in August. After that, we went out for a while and played some pool.
Sunday morning: Some more Ne-Waza techniques, a few Kuzushi techniques and a little bit of Ne-Waza randori. Finally, we said our goodbyes and headed for the boat, proud of ourselves as a club and as Judo players.
We spent the weekend sleeping on mats, like I said earlier, which kind of sucked, but we couldn't get hotel rooms. Butokuden has a sub floor and 2 inch mats, but you wouldn't believe how hard they can feel when you try to sleep on them.
Also, a little about me. I'm from Newfoundland, speak a little French, been doing Judo since September and I'm an 18 year old yellow belt.
Don't know if anyone else was there, but it was excellent and I made some great friends and learned a lot about Judo. Also, if there's anyone at all from Saint Pierre on here, thank you for having us and hopefully we will be back soon.
